Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the company will "continue to innovate across devices", an ambiguous phrase that could mean more hardware is on the way.

Earlier this month, Microsoft sold its entry-level feature phones business for $350 million.

"If Microsoft can replicate the success of Surface tablets in smartphones, Windows 10 Mobile will be back in business", he told V3.

The Verge reports that Microsoft is planning a Surface-branded phone for 2017 and that the Lumia 650 will go down as Microsoft's last Lumia device. The axing of another 1,850 jobs and a write-off of $950m from its Nokia acquisition, coming after the $7.6bn write-off a year ago, is the final nail in the coffin in the firm's attempt to have any serious share of the smartphone market. Windows-powered devices fell to less than 1 percent of the worldwide smartphone market in the latest quarterly stats from the Gartner research firm, while Android climbed to more than 84 percent.

Nokia was the world's leading mobile phone maker from 1998 until 2011 when it bet on Microsoft's Windows mobile platform, which proved to be a flop.

Less than two years later, Nadella admitted publicly that the move had been a failure.

After all this, one thing is for sure, the Microsoft phone making business has not been as fruitful as needed, and it is coming to a halt at the moment, for the time being. Mr. Nadella also touted the company's Continuum feature, which enables a smartphone running Windows 10 to function as a surrogate PC when connected a video monitor and keyboard.

Windows Phone has struggled in the face of stiff competition from iPhone and Android phones.